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Senior-high students’ spending and saving habits are best studied by asking about specific actions over a stated period, then sampling students in a way that matches the population you want to describe. OECD PISA 2022 results offer an international reference: among participating OECD countries and economies, most 15-year-old students reported checking their money and saving, but those results are not estimates for every senior-high school or country.
What counts as a spending or saving habit?
Measure actions rather than relying on broad labels such as “good with money.” A questionnaire can ask how often students check how much money they have, verify change, compare prices, spend more than intended, save, or work toward a savings goal. Include a clear reference period—for example, the previous 12 months—so respondents interpret each question consistently.
Distinguish reported behaviour from financial-literacy performance. A student’s answer about saving is self-reported behaviour; a test of financial knowledge or skills measures something different. Attitudes, such as wanting to save, should also be separated from actions actually taken.
What PISA 2022 says about students’ spending and saving
OECD’s PISA 2022 Results (Volume IV), published in 2024, reports averages across OECD countries and economies participating in the financial-literacy assessment. PISA assesses 15-year-olds, a group that does not represent every senior-high population.
#1 Best Overall
| Reported action in the previous 12 months | OECD average |
|---|---|
| Checked how much money they had | 94% |
| Checked that they received the correct change | 82% |
| Bought something that cost more than intended | 77% |
| Complained they lacked enough money for something they wanted | 76% |
The same report says 93% saved at least once during the previous 12 months. Within that group of reported behaviours, 67% said they saved into an account and 88% saved at home. These categories overlap: a student could save in both places, so the percentages should not be added together.
Financial literacy and financial behaviours are associated in the OECD analysis, but the results do not show that one causes the other. After the report’s stated adjustments, students at financial-literacy Levels 4 or 5 were almost four times as likely as students at Level 1 or below to report checking how much money they had. The OECD also reports positive associations between financial literacy and saving.
Rank #2
How to plan a study and choose a sample
Define who the study is about
State the country or locality, school type, grade levels, school year, and eligibility rules. “Senior-high students” alone may be too broad: a study of one school, one district, or a national population makes a different claim in each case.
Build a sampling frame and choose a selection method
A sampling frame is the list of eligible students or schools from which the sample is selected. Explain where the list came from and which students or schools it may leave out. If the goal is to estimate habits for a defined population, probability sampling is generally more defensible than recruiting only convenient volunteers. Stratifying by school, grade, or academic strand can help ensure those groups are represented when relevant.
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Local examples illustrate different approaches rather than universally preferred methods. Eribal and colleagues’ 2024 Colon National High School study, “Ipon Now, Gastos Later,” selected 170 respondents and four informants purposively and used researcher-created survey and interview instruments. A separate Misamis University repository study reports 362 students selected through stratified systematic sampling. Each concerns its own setting and design; neither supplies a national estimate.
Justify the sample size instead of choosing a universal number
A defensible sample-size calculation depends on the target population size, desired precision, confidence level, expected response distribution or variance, design effect, and anticipated nonresponse. Without those inputs, there is no evidence-based universal number of respondents for this topic. If a project cannot calculate a target in advance, report the sample actually obtained, how students were selected, and the resulting limits on generalization.
What to ask in a student questionnaire
Use neutral wording, concrete behaviours, and a consistent reference period. Questions aligned with the PISA domains can cover whether students checked available money, verified change, spent beyond intention, or lacked enough money for something they wanted. For saving, distinguish saving at home from putting money into an account, and ask about goals as a separate matter.
- Ask about frequency or whether an action occurred, and specify the period covered.
- Separate cash kept at home from savings deposited in an account; allow for both where applicable.
- Keep questions about behaviour distinct from questions about attitudes, intentions, and financial knowledge.
- Use the same definitions and response options for all groups being compared.
For context, Japan’s Life Insurance Culture Center describes a 2025 survey of first- and second-year high-school students: 3,034 respondents from 74 schools, with fieldwork from July 1 to September 30, 2025. Its survey page, issued in March 2026, says the project supports teaching and the development of educational materials. The page’s survey description does not establish a particular spending or saving result.
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How to compare groups without overclaiming
Potential comparison variables in the described local studies include grade level, gender, academic strand, age, and daily allowance. Those are variables to investigate, not proven explanations for financial behaviour. For each comparison, state the measure and reference period, define the groups, give each group’s denominator, explain missing-data handling, and report the difference and its uncertainty. A statistically significant difference alone does not show practical importance or explain why the groups differ.
Account for the sampling design in analysis. Students sampled within schools may be clustered, and unequal selection probabilities may require weights; treating either design as a simple random sample can misstate uncertainty. OECD’s PISA volume includes technical material on multilevel analyses and weights, but the appropriate method depends on the local study’s own design.
Use household data only for household questions
The Philippine Statistics Authority’s 2023 Family Income and Expenditure Survey materials concern family income and expenditures. They can provide household context, but they are not a direct measure of an individual teenager’s personal spending habits.
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